Labor's extreme makeover

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Maroubra stump . . . born again politician Peter Garrett, under the watchful eye of his ALP master, Mark Latham, announces plans to run for Federal Parliament at a beachside news conference yesterday. Photo: Peter Rae

Labor Party celebrity candidate Peter Garrett declared his support yesterday for US-Australian joint facilities at Pine Gap, saying they had a "legitimate role" in protecting against terrorists.

The rock star, campaigner for Aborigines, environmental activist and one-time Nuclear Disarmament Party candidate ended nearly a week of speculation by confirming he would become a Labor candidate, and began addressing concerns about the type of politician he would be.

In an interview with the Herald he acknowledged there would be "frustrations" belonging to a major party, but said his views had become more "mainstream" with age.

"I'll be expected to accept the policies of the party. It doesn't mean that my strong views about different issues can't be expressed, but they'll be expressed within the party."

The once-strident anti-bases campaigner said he now accepted the need for the US spy base, saying at his first press conference as a candidate: "I don't believe Pine Gap should be closed. I'm convinced and, in the maturing of time, concede . . . that the international situation has changed. It's terrorism now; not nuclear disarmament."

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Later he told the Herald: "The strategic environment has changed, particularly since 9/11.

"It's certainly clear that the primary role at least at this time of the satellite facilities would be to assist in eavesdropping and monitoring terrorism exchanges, and that is a legitimate role for those facilities at this point in time. So, as a consequence, I can live with Labor's policy."

Mr Garrett also took a softer line on the clear felling of Tasmania's old growth forests, one of the defining issues for the environment movement.

"The encouraging thing, I think, is the federal leader went to Tasmania, he listened to everybody ... and he's committed to ensuring that whatever final decisions are taken in relation to the Tassie forests, that there'll be equitable provision of employment and ... environmental values."

The Prime Minister, John Howard, made his first comments on the newest member of the ALP, warning people to consider the effect "extreme green policies" would have on economic development.

"You don't want extreme Green attitudes because extreme Green attitudes are anti-investment and anti-jobs. It's not much good having a pristine environment in a bankrupt country."

Mr Garrett said it was simplistic to suggest "that because you're for protection of the environment, you're against the economy".

"That is an extremely old paradigm, and suggests that people aren't thinking seriously about the new agendas, community agendas, sustainability agendas, intergenerational equity agendas," he said.

Mr Garrett spent much of his first day as a candidate fending off Government attacks over his apparent failure to record a vote at several federal elections.

He said he had applied for "silent" enrolment after threats to his family during his time with the Nuclear Disarmament Party and had turned up to vote at each subsequent election.

He thought he had cast a valid vote each time and had neither been advised by the Australian Electoral Commission that he had been dropped off the roll, nor fined for having failed to vote.

Mr Garrett said he had been driven to join the ALP because of where Labor governments had taken Australia.

"The Howard Government has made Australia a tenser, narrower, harder place, and that alone is reason enough to want to vote them out," he said.

If he won Kingsford Smith he would move into the electorate.

The Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, said Mr Garrett would eventually be a Labor minister. "In the fullness of time, I would expect Peter to be there as one of our front-line contributors."